When to Plant Melons in Marquette, MI

The USDA Zone info is a great tool for gardeners to help us determine your gardening schedule. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

A way of estimating when to plant melons is to look at the USDA zone info for Marquette.


Planting Calendar for Melons

Frost tolerance for melons: Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant: After the last frost has passed.

Since melons are not cold tolerant it's important to wait until after the last frost when the weather gets warmer before you can plant them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Legend 
A good time to plant melons
Possibly ok, but a risky time to plant melons
Probably not a good time to plant melons

The earliest that you can plant melons in Marquette is April. However, you really should wait until May if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant melons and expect a good harvest is probably August. Any later than that and your melons may not have a chance to fully mature. You can get started a couple of weeks earlier by starting your melons indoors.

Last Frost Date

On average the last frost is on April 15 in Marquette. You can expect an average low temperature of -15°F in the coldest months of winter.

Always keep in mind that USDA zone info for Marquette may not be accurate from year to year and the actual date of last frost changes from year to year. Since half of the time in Marquette you get surprised by a frost after April 15 be ready to cover your melons if you have one of those late frosts.

USDA Zone Info for Marquette

Here is the info for USDA Zone 5b.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)April 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)October 15
Lowest Expected Low-15°F
Highest Expected Low-10°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is -15°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near -10°F.

Plants to Grow in Marquette

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Marquette.